First Lady Lucy Ware Webb Hayes was born in this four-room Federal Vernacular house in 1831. Well educated for her time, she attended local schools, took classes in the preparatory department of Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, and graduated from Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati in 1850. She married lawyer and future U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1852. They raised five children to adulthood. As a colonel's wife during the Civil War, "Mother Lucy" boosted morale for the soldiers of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiment. In 1870, during Hayes' first term as governor of Ohio, Lucy helped establish the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home as a state institution. (continued on other side)

Text, side B

During Rutherford B. Hayes' 1877-1881 presidential term, Mrs. Hayes brought temperance to the White House and established lasting traditions, including the Easter "Egg Roll" and the eagle logo on the White House stationery. Politically astute and forthright, Lucy earned widespread admiration and became the first "First Lady" so titled. She died in 1889 and is interred at Spiegel Grove in Fremont. Built circa 1825 and rented in 1826 by Lucy' parents, Dr. James and Maria Cook Webb, the house was moved here from its original East Fourth Street location in 1883. The Chillicothe Restoration Foundation saved it from demolition in 1968. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 as part of the Chillicothe Old Residential District. The Ross County Commissioners completed restoration in 1985.